The Department of "Just Us" Revisited

As loyal V&V readers know, one of my favorite essayists is Elizabeth de la Vega. Ms. de la Vega is a former federal prosecutor and a tenacious advocate for the American system of justice. While I still find it incredible that we live in such a time that our system of justice needs advocates in order to protect its very existence, here we are. Suddenly, concern for the Constitution and its civil liberties is now assaulted, often successfully, as a part of some bigger "liberal" or "unpatriotic" agenda. The cynicism required to hurl epithets such as "playing politics" when the governed, through their representatives, are trying to find out what the hell is going on at the DOJ, for example (or how we really got into Iraq), is beyond even me (even today - see earlier post).

I have been watching and waiting for de la Vega to weigh in since A.G. A.G.'s announcement of his resignation. Here she does so with a piece that describes in detail every wrong (illegal?) turn this administration has taken while behind the wheel, which has landed us at our final destination: in the ditch. De la Vega, at one point in this piece, uses the term "a shameful capitulation by Congress." You may rest assured that there are very few of this administration's actions about which we should complain these last 7 years that haven't been in the company of a shameful capitulation by our Congress. It continues to this day, and suddenly I am overwhelmed with a desire to shout "Playing politics" loudly enough for all of D.C. to hear me.

In examining what Gonzales' resignation means, ultimately, de le Vega's piece begins: [The justice department] can only be changed for the better if George W. Bush and Dick Cheney want such a change. And they most fervently do not - at least not if you construe the term "for the better" to mean returning the Department of Justice (DOJ) to its former status as an agency that strives to fairly and independently enforce the law on behalf of the people of the United States.

Here are some of the "Points of Interest" on the road map de la Vega has drawn for us:

• We begin with the appointment of John Ashcroft and move forward.
• A "180 degree shift from DOJ policy" regarding gun prosecutions (watch out for U-turns all along this route).
• A roll back of environmental protection enforcement for the benefit of big business.
• The rounding up of over 1000 Arab/ Muslim non-citizens as "material witnesses," supervised by DOJ's criminal division, then headed by Michael Chertoff.
• The expansion of the government's surveillance powers under the USA PATRIOT Act, and changes in FISA which apparently still weren't broad enough so that they were ignored and violated anyway.
• Mass detentions of people with nothing remotely resembling Constitutional or internationally-recognized safeguards applied.

There's more. Just keep turning hard right. Find ditch. Turn off the ignition, but for heaven's sake, let's not forget to grab the keys before we get out to wait for a tow.